In our latest Education in the Evening (EiTE) session, AnaVators Bryce and Joe led an engaging and informative presentation on Capture the Flag (CTF) competitions—a dynamic and hands-on way to sharpen cybersecurity skills, solve complex challenges, and build community through friendly competition.
They kicked off the session by breaking down what a Capture the Flag event entails. In essence, a CTF is a cybersecurity competition where individuals or teams work to solve a series of technical challenges. Each completed challenge reveals a hidden “flag,” which serves as proof of success. The team that collects the most flags—often within a set time limit—wins. If multiple teams solve the same number of challenges, the one that finishes the fastest earns the higher ranking.
Bryce and Joe emphasized the many reasons to participate in CTFs, from learning new technical skills and enhancing existing capabilities to developing critical thinking and collaborating with like-minded professionals. CTFs bring real-world vulnerabilities right to your machine, offering practical, compartmentalized challenges that promote creativity, teamwork, and continued learning. CTFs are also a great way to experience competitive camaraderie in a low-pressure, educational setting. They create opportunities for professional growth, problem-solving, and community-building, all while exploring cutting-edge topics in cybersecurity.
The session also covered the range of skills and types of challenges participants can expect to encounter. Common categories include web exploitation, cryptography, binary exploitation, reversing, and forensics. Some challenges involve analyzing or attacking a vulnerable API or website, while others require participants to reverse-engineer a binary or decrypt protected information. More advanced events may include full system compromises, known as FullPwn, where users must escalate privileges to uncover both user and root-level flags. Miscellaneous challenges can range from OSINT and AI-based tasks to unexpected problem-solving puzzles, such as chess or circuitry analysis.
To illustrate what a CTF challenge looks like in practice, Bryce shared a video demo featuring a reverse engineering task from a recent Hack the Box event that AnaVation participated in. The challenge, titled tinyplatformer, involved analyzing a small platform-style game binary to locate the embedded flag. The demo showcased not only how these challenges function but also the strategic thought process and technical flow involved in working toward a solution.
The session concluded with a wealth of practical resources and recommendations for AnaVators interested in joining the CTF community. Whether new to the concept or experienced in cybersecurity, everyone was encouraged to get involved, practice regularly, and explore the growing number of competitions and learning platforms available online.
Thank you to Bryce and Joe for leading such a dynamic and valuable EiTE session! It was great to see the engagement from our AnaVators. With high participation, engaging content, and real-world takeaways, this EiTE truly captured the spirit of continuous learning and professional development. We look forward to growing our AnaVation CTF community and participating in future events!
